Rabbi Dr. David Gottlieb - Jewish Philosophy: Questions and Answers - 13

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

Okay. I don't know why. Good evening. Good evening. I want to preface my question with I'm aware that some of my comments may be flawed out of ignorance So, part of the answer to my question is just that I'm wrong. My question though is how do we understand the Torah's deprecation and prohibition against homosexuality in the face of universal psychiatric uh agreement that homosexuality is not a choice and depending on who you trust, you know, the APA or not, but basically according to everybody there's a large window of people who cannot be treated. So, how are these people I mean, generally I understand that a lot of prohibitions in the Torah are hard to understand. And this one seems to be a thing that regular people don't understand. But what bothers me is it seems like every inclination and every desire has a healthy kosher way of having the, you know, of being used. If there are certain people that have no choice they seem doesn't seem consistent with the other prohibitions in the Torah. Um Well, there is no evidence. There's no evidence that there is no choice. There's no evidence. Um of course you have to distinguish between no choice about having a desire versus no choice about your behavior. It may very well be that people have no choices, no immediate choices, no snap of the finger choices about certain desires. Maybe long-term programs could change a person's desires, but it doesn't follow from the fact that I have certain desires that I have no choice of what I do. That doesn't follow. Is there a possibility And there is no evidence that there's no choice uh over over behavior, none whatsoever. Um and there's no evidence of the inability to treat. There's no evidence of the inability to treat.

Jump to a moment

1. 0:22Okay. I don't know why. Good evening. Good evening. I want to preface my question with…
2. 5:42for it whatsoever. And as far as treatment is concerned, uh Uh, you must know that…
3. 11:03What will he do? Just keep going cuz he's out of control? Probably not. Probably first…
4. 16:18but they're not better at making value judgements. So, I don't think we should be influenced…
5. 21:38Um you tell the person it's okay to think about the the lumber. You think about…
6. 26:55she treat me like that? There isn't anything wrong with me. What I do is okay.…
7. 32:14comes up, I would like to feel open to ask you that we should move to…
8. 37:26cosmological argument or ontological argument or the rest, the thoughtful student will Google it and he'll…
9. 42:45opinions are. And this is something you will discuss with your spouse. So, that you can…
10. 47:56It's not up to the minimum level of credibility that a a theory needs to have…

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